Weekend with Alejandro: Escovedo's rocking fire

Sunday

Apr 20, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 20, 2014 at 11:39 PM

It was a helluva lot more invigorating than a 'Weekend at Bernie's,' when I rather spontaneously ended up spending Friday and Saturday nights at concerts delivered by Austin, Texas rocker Alejandro Escovedo and the Sensitive Boys, at Brighton Music Hall on Friday, and at The Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River the next night.

I hadn't planned on making it a whole weekend, but circumstances from the Friday night show left me wondering. Basically, distracted a bit by the Bruins playoff game, I got to the Brighton Music Hall about a half-hour after the band started, and even though I still heard probably 70 minutes of Escovedo's set, it left me a bit curious about the rest. Also, incredibly, the Boston show drew barely 100 fans, and while the mostly over-40 crowd did its best to generate enthusiasm, and heard a galvanizing show, the energy level was just a little static. I just wanted another chance to hear Escovedo's whole set, with an audience he might be able to ignite a little more effectively.

Saturday's show was certainly that, as the Narrows Center was packed with an almost sold out throng of about 260. Better yet, it was a much wider age range. If there was anyone at the Brighton show under 40 I didn't see them, which was depressing for the state of rock 'n' roll. But at the Narrows, I was standing next to a quartet--two couples--of kids who looked barely 21, and appeared to be having the time of the lives.

Escovedo is a roots rockin' songwriter adored by savvy music fans with good reason, with a style that straddles mainstream rock, punk rock, Americana and Mexican elements with seamless ease--in other words, the kind of cross-polleination we used to just expect from rock.

Escovedo the songwriter is a terrific storyteller, able to craft vignettes that are both detailed and personal enough to be genuinely unique, and yet suffused with the kind of emotional truths that make them universally appealing. Escovedo, 63, spent more time with his song introductions Saturday night, more directly conveying the notion that his successive albums are all "just telling my story, our story.." as he said at one point. There was a moving anecdote about putting together the "Real Animal" album, amid record company disinterest and self-doubt, until he spent a week with Ian Hunter to try out the new music with him, and the former Mott the Hoople leader essentially just told him to be himself and tell his story, and let the chips fall where they might.

Comparing the two nights, though, the setlists were almost the same--Escovedo did not perform "Big Station," title cut from his 2012 album at Fall River, but that seemed the only change. Both concerts lasted about 1:45, and I'd wager the longer intros made up the time that they gained by cutting that one song, which was fine. But both shows followed a narrative progression, a concise peek into who Alejandro Escovedo is and where he came from, and how he sees his mission in music. Both nights built steadily to a triumphant blast of guitar pyrotechnics, a marvelously wild and stirring climax. But the added factor of a near-capacity crowd going bonkers Saturday night gave that show an extra power.

Escovedo's setlists were a cool blend of old and new, with some unexpected covers thrown in at the end. The Narrows show opened with "(Just Can't) Put You Down" a thumping rocker from 1996 that deals with obsession (alcohol, women, whatever?). The bass guitar was a bit too loud in this opener, and generally could've been lower Saturday night, so the Brighton sound mix was superior, but Escovedo's own soundman was working both soundboards. In any case those concerns dissipated as the night went on, and "Tender Heart" from 2010's "Street Songs of Love" album came across as a raging, punk-inflected rock charge.

Escovedo's "Can't Make Me Run" is a fascinating, haunting kind of rock ballad anyway, but the surreal guitar tones he crafted with lead guitarist Johnny Sanchez made Saturday's version hypnotic. Reaching back again, Escovedo's weirdly evocative "Dear Head on the Wall," which he has said deals with both Buddhism and taxidermy, was delivered as a roaring punk-rock march.

But then Escovedo and his quartet changed gears, as he donnede acoustic guitar for the folk-rock-like "The Bottom of the World," which decries modern day changes in Austin. Still with the acoustic guitar Escovedo's vocal on "San Antonio Rain" might have been his best and most moving of the night, on a tune about his heritage.

"Sensitive Boys," which is about life in a band, as Escovedo noted, comes from that "Real Animal" album, which he co-wrote with Chuck Prophet. Friday's rendition seemed a bit dreamier than Saturday's, which carried more grit. From that point the setlists changed a bit, with some songs done in slightly different order, but the main thrust still the same.

"Wave" was written about his family history, his father's trek to Texas from Mexico, and then on to California, and Escovedo's lengthy intro Saturday night was both heartbreaking and affirming. The song itself was a subtle potboiler at both shows, although again the Brighton show's version seemed a bit more ethereal, while Fall River's leaned more towards gritty realism. "Castanets" brought both nights back to rockin' fervor, with its refrain of "I like her better when she walks away" pushing both audiences to singing-and-dancing along.

At that point the Brighton show got the rowdy thunder of "Big Station," but the Narrows show went right into the sardonic "Everybody Loves Me." Friday that song had been a pounding blues-rocker, but Saturday the band turned it into a more psychedelic guitar jam, where Sanchez and Escovedo traded some otherworldly lines.

That led into the night's homestretch, which was as transporting as any sequence in a rock concert I've ever heard. Escovedo introduced "Arizona" by talking about his 2003 health crisis (hepatitis-C) and the resultant help of the music community and fans that aided his recovery, but also necessitated his abandoning his previous partying profile. At Brighton, that song came across as a moody, somewhat dark ballad of redemption. But at the Narrows, it seemed to take a different tack, a more defiant tone as Escovedo seemed to be celebrating his revival more. And the Fall River rendition sparked more intense guitar play, with Sanchez especially uncorking sonic stilettos that evoked the turmoil in the song.

At the Boston show, "Arizona" ended in a sustained wave of guitar distortion that erupted into the next song, while the Fall River show had bit more conventional transition. But the incendiary version of Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane" that followed was unforgettable on both nights. On that guitar showcase, Sanchez did a wonderful job of echoing Young's own style of simple riffs, repeated notes, and raw emotion, while Escovedo's solo was more melodic, yet also thrillingly reckless in its own way. It seemed to me Escovedo used his whammy-bar much more extensively Saturday, exploring the potential of wah-wah and slide sounds without ever losing the essence of the tune. Both nights found the crowd singing the chorus as the night wound down.

For his encores both nights, Escovedo unearthed The Clash's song "Go Straight to Hell, Boys," and since these were the first two times he'd ever done it, he needed a lyric sheet both times. I felt like the second night found the Sensitive Boys better delivering the tune's subtle ska rhythms, but both times were wild and wooly treats.

Both shows also ended with a roadhouse take on Tom Waits' "Going Out West." But Saturday, Escovedo introduced it by inviting people to get up and dance, saying he'd been disappointed the night before to see people "just staring at us.." The Narrows Center doesn't have much room to dance amid all the seats and tables, but almost everyone present was on their feet and shaking or boogying in as much room as they could find while Escovedo and the band belted out that last fire-breathing bit of rock 'n' roll.

At the end of 2014, it's a cinch any of us who were at either show are going to rank Escovedo's weekend in Massachusetts among the best concerts of the year.

It was a helluva lot more invigorating than a 'Weekend at Bernie's,' when I rather spontaneously ended up spending Friday and Saturday nights at concerts delivered by Austin, Texas rocker Alejandro Escovedo and the Sensitive Boys, at Brighton Music Hall on Friday, and at The Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River the next night.
I hadn't planned on making it a whole weekend, but circumstances from the Friday night show left me wondering. Basically, distracted a bit by the Bruins playoff game, I got to the Brighton Music Hall about a half-hour after the band started, and even though I still heard probably 70 minutes of Escovedo's set, it left me a bit curious about the rest. Also, incredibly, the Boston show drew barely 100 fans, and while the mostly over-40 crowd did its best to generate enthusiasm, and heard a galvanizing show, the energy level was just a little static. I just wanted another chance to hear Escovedo's whole set, with an audience he might be able to ignite a little more effectively.
Saturday's show was certainly that, as the Narrows Center was packed with an almost sold out throng of about 260. Better yet, it was a much wider age range. If there was anyone at the Brighton show under 40 I didn't see them, which was depressing for the state of rock 'n' roll. But at the Narrows, I was standing next to a quartet--two couples--of kids who looked barely 21, and appeared to be having the time of the lives.
Escovedo is a roots rockin' songwriter adored by savvy music fans with good reason, with a style that straddles mainstream rock, punk rock, Americana and Mexican elements with seamless ease--in other words, the kind of cross-polleination we used to just expect from rock.
Escovedo the songwriter is a terrific storyteller, able to craft vignettes that are both detailed and personal enough to be genuinely unique, and yet suffused with the kind of emotional truths that make them universally appealing. Escovedo, 63, spent more time with his song introductions Saturday night, more directly conveying the notion that his successive albums are all "just telling my story, our story.." as he said at one point. There was a moving anecdote about putting together the "Real Animal" album, amid record company disinterest and self-doubt, until he spent a week with Ian Hunter to try out the new music with him, and the former Mott the Hoople leader essentially just told him to be himself and tell his story, and let the chips fall where they might.
Comparing the two nights, though, the setlists were almost the same--Escovedo did not perform "Big Station," title cut from his 2012 album at Fall River, but that seemed the only change. Both concerts lasted about 1:45, and I'd wager the longer intros made up the time that they gained by cutting that one song, which was fine. But both shows followed a narrative progression, a concise peek into who Alejandro Escovedo is and where he came from, and how he sees his mission in music. Both nights built steadily to a triumphant blast of guitar pyrotechnics, a marvelously wild and stirring climax. But the added factor of a near-capacity crowd going bonkers Saturday night gave that show an extra power.
Escovedo's setlists were a cool blend of old and new, with some unexpected covers thrown in at the end. The Narrows show opened with "(Just Can't) Put You Down" a thumping rocker from 1996 that deals with obsession (alcohol, women, whatever?). The bass guitar was a bit too loud in this opener, and generally could've been lower Saturday night, so the Brighton sound mix was superior, but Escovedo's own soundman was working both soundboards. In any case those concerns dissipated as the night went on, and "Tender Heart" from 2010's "Street Songs of Love" album came across as a raging, punk-inflected rock charge.
Escovedo's "Can't Make Me Run" is a fascinating, haunting kind of rock ballad anyway, but the surreal guitar tones he crafted with lead guitarist Johnny Sanchez made Saturday's version hypnotic. Reaching back again, Escovedo's weirdly evocative "Dear Head on the Wall," which he has said deals with both Buddhism and taxidermy, was delivered as a roaring punk-rock march.
But then Escovedo and his quartet changed gears, as he donnede acoustic guitar for the folk-rock-like "The Bottom of the World," which decries modern day changes in Austin. Still with the acoustic guitar Escovedo's vocal on "San Antonio Rain" might have been his best and most moving of the night, on a tune about his heritage.
"Sensitive Boys," which is about life in a band, as Escovedo noted, comes from that "Real Animal" album, which he co-wrote with Chuck Prophet. Friday's rendition seemed a bit dreamier than Saturday's, which carried more grit. From that point the setlists changed a bit, with some songs done in slightly different order, but the main thrust still the same.
"Wave" was written about his family history, his father's trek to Texas from Mexico, and then on to California, and Escovedo's lengthy intro Saturday night was both heartbreaking and affirming. The song itself was a subtle potboiler at both shows, although again the Brighton show's version seemed a bit more ethereal, while Fall River's leaned more towards gritty realism. "Castanets" brought both nights back to rockin' fervor, with its refrain of "I like her better when she walks away" pushing both audiences to singing-and-dancing along.
At that point the Brighton show got the rowdy thunder of "Big Station," but the Narrows show went right into the sardonic "Everybody Loves Me." Friday that song had been a pounding blues-rocker, but Saturday the band turned it into a more psychedelic guitar jam, where Sanchez and Escovedo traded some otherworldly lines.
That led into the night's homestretch, which was as transporting as any sequence in a rock concert I've ever heard. Escovedo introduced "Arizona" by talking about his 2003 health crisis (hepatitis-C) and the resultant help of the music community and fans that aided his recovery, but also necessitated his abandoning his previous partying profile. At Brighton, that song came across as a moody, somewhat dark ballad of redemption. But at the Narrows, it seemed to take a different tack, a more defiant tone as Escovedo seemed to be celebrating his revival more. And the Fall River rendition sparked more intense guitar play, with Sanchez especially uncorking sonic stilettos that evoked the turmoil in the song.
At the Boston show, "Arizona" ended in a sustained wave of guitar distortion that erupted into the next song, while the Fall River show had bit more conventional transition. But the incendiary version of Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane" that followed was unforgettable on both nights. On that guitar showcase, Sanchez did a wonderful job of echoing Young's own style of simple riffs, repeated notes, and raw emotion, while Escovedo's solo was more melodic, yet also thrillingly reckless in its own way. It seemed to me Escovedo used his whammy-bar much more extensively Saturday, exploring the potential of wah-wah and slide sounds without ever losing the essence of the tune. Both nights found the crowd singing the chorus as the night wound down.
For his encores both nights, Escovedo unearthed The Clash's song "Go Straight to Hell, Boys," and since these were the first two times he'd ever done it, he needed a lyric sheet both times. I felt like the second night found the Sensitive Boys better delivering the tune's subtle ska rhythms, but both times were wild and wooly treats.
Both shows also ended with a roadhouse take on Tom Waits' "Going Out West." But Saturday, Escovedo introduced it by inviting people to get up and dance, saying he'd been disappointed the night before to see people "just staring at us.." The Narrows Center doesn't have much room to dance amid all the seats and tables, but almost everyone present was on their feet and shaking or boogying in as much room as they could find while Escovedo and the band belted out that last fire-breathing bit of rock 'n' roll.
At the end of 2014, it's a cinch any of us who were at either show are going to rank Escovedo's weekend in Massachusetts among the best concerts of the year.